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The saga started with a single photograph, perhaps the most impactful ever taken of a individual from the royal household.

Present was the Duke of York, standing closely beside a young woman, while a companion smiled knowingly in the rear.

Without that snapshot, taken at a party in 2001, who would have believed the assertions of a young woman who said she was trafficked across the Atlantic and obliged to have perfunctory relations with a individual of the monarchy?

A strange, revealing move by someone who had publicly stated to have never been aware of her, said he could no have had sex with her, and yet paid a large amount of his mother's money to resolve a long-delayed lawsuit.

A Long Period of Controversy

In this context, talk of the royal family acting decisively to distance themselves from Andrew are wide of the mark. This affair has persisted for the better part of 15 years since that picture, and a further image of Andrew ambling pleasantly with a notorious individual emerged.

• Hubris: How long did his family members, maybe even his relatives, know that Andrew was so presumptuous?
• Dubious Friendships: They must have understood, if his employees and the police were doing their jobs, that he had some highly questionable friends given he publicly invited them to estates.
• Fiscal Irresponsibility: If the monarchy did not know about his intimate behaviors, they certainly knew about his extravagance with taxpayer funds.

Journeys were printed in official documents: chopper travel from the palace to a country club and back again in time for dining, chartered planes instead of regular transport, all for the comfort of "Airmiles Andy".

A Life of Privilege

Then there was the presumption which demanded deference when he entered a space or the supreme obsession about his royal titles used on his letterheads in messages to his personal acquaintances.

He could get away with it while his mother, who unaccountably pampered him, was still living. The sovereign did at least strip him of public duties and ceremonial ranks in the aftermath of his disastrous and, we now know, deceptive television interview six years ago.

Recent Developments

Merely in the last 14 days that events sped up, following the issuance of accounts giving more grim details of his behavior and that of his companions.

Further disclosures have again highlighted Andrew's thinking that he could get away with lying about his interaction with a convicted criminal.

The public (and the journalists) were far in advance of the royals. There was not a single person of any consequence to defend him, a consequence of all those years of hubris.

Monarchical Concerns

The more intelligent family members recognized that. The key objective is to hand down the monarchy, if not as before at least whole and untarnished.

They have spent the last 190 years trying to reverse the reputation of previous monarchs, showing they are valuable, responsible and reactive to their citizens.

His actions endangered all that in peril in an era when submission and secrecy is no longer enough.

Aftermath

Ultimately, the famously hesitant sovereign was pressured more. There was no alternative. The palace had lost control of the account.

Now it is the loss of honorifics and the persistent and lifetime public humiliation that will hurt Andrew most severely.

• Demotion: Lowered to just Mr Mountbatten-Windsor
• Prior Instance: The primary member to lose his titles in recent history
• Military Service: Especially hurtful given his duty in the engagement

He is still a constitutional officer, theoretically able to substitute for the king, and he is still in the succession to the crown, but not any of these will truly occur.

Coming Developments

Can persons he meets still show respect to him? Could they still make mistakes and call him Sir? Will they even say Mr,

Naturally, he is not retiring to suburbia, but to the sovereign's extensive property at a monarchical property.

In that place, he will be furnished by the sovereign with one of the estate properties and given some form of private allowance.

It is not his previous residence, where he paid a token rent for more than 20 years, and Norfolk is a bit distant, but even so it may not be adequate distance.

Unresolved Issues

This is not over. There are still records in the custody of US Congress to be made public.

• Governmental Scrutiny: Might legislators seek further action
• Fiscal Review: Or scrutinize the misuse of state resources
• Criminal Investigation: There may even be a law enforcement inquiry into his conduct

Possibly for the time being the harm to the monarchy to the crown is limited. The narrative from the institution was clearly that the revocation of titles was what the king, and notably other senior family members, desired.

Altered Approach

No more pretence that Andrew was doing it voluntarily. And, notably, the short announcement showed plainly that the royals were aligning with the accuser's account of events.

Furthermore, for the initial instance they ultimately showed consideration for the victims: "The measures are considered essential, notwithstanding the fact that he maintains his innocence of the allegations against him."

In the end it is entitlement, self-interest and laziness that will kill the crown. In his foolishness, self-gratification and venality, Andrew appears never to have grasped that lesson.